Law review: What's new? Tracing the origin of species

One common question asked at the outset of a software-development project is if it is okay to create the new program. The simple and easy legal answer is that the law does not prohibit the development of new software. The reason the law is so crystal clear on the issue of developing new software is that it presumes a theoretical situation called independent development, in which new software is presumed to; be based solely on any new concepts or code; contain no old concepts or code; and contain the thoughts of only the participants of the development team. Independently developed software must be 100 percent original. The paper considers how it does not survive long when applied to situations in the real world. There is no such thing as new software that is truly and entirely original.<
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